The Tree
by Corrupted Desires
Summary: AU Oneshot. When a vampire reaches the breaking point sometimes a seemingly pointless task is exactly what is needed. Inspired by lines in mynxi's story "Saving Bella" Complete.


**Disclaimer:** I do not own Twilight or any characters and ideas associated with the Twilight Saga. As far as I know, this story idea is original.

**Author's Note:** This short story is written under the assumption that people are already aware of the Twilight facts such as vampires, vampires with powers, which vampires in the series have powers, when Alice first went to find the Cullen family, etc., etc…

* * *

There comes a time in everyone's life when they just reach a complete melting point. When that point is reached, the brain metaphorically melts down into nothing more than a puddle of steaming matter. Once a person's brain has reached this state, it can take a varied amount of time for it to pull itself back together. Some people are lucky and that time is over in a matter of hours. Others…

Well, the healing process is not always kind and can lead to insanity. Usually this insanity is temporary. Sometimes the insanity is permanent. And very, very rarely something magical comes as a result.

Unfortunately for the world, vampires are not safe from reaching this critical moment. In all cases it is a life-changing event and always results in strange behavior. The common result is the apathetic behavior documented in the Volturi king, Marcus. And other times, even more strange behavior results. Such is the case of one Jasper Whitlock…

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

"No… You can't end this! You, you said you were waiting for me!" The panic in the voice was evident to any within hearing range. "You gave me hope! How can you just…"

"Jasper, I'm sorry." An exasperated sigh followed the words. "I guess I should have made it clear from the beginning…"

The panicked one, Jasper, was on his knees. His arms wrapped around the other's legs. "Alice, please… Please… I can't do this without you. You mean everything to me… Don't do this!"

Alice, finally having had enough, pushed Jasper away from her violently. She gave him a stern look; untouched by the wounded expression he gave her from where he had fallen to the ground. "Look! You were just to protect me as I made my way to my family!" She was shouting at him, her patience gone. "You shouldn't have gotten attached. I didn't see you getting attached." The last part was softer, a faintly confused look in her eyes before she shook her head. "No. You will not continue further with me. I'm going to be happy and you're going to go find your own way. I've done my job with you. You know you don't have to eat humans now let me leave."

The two vampires were currently in the Olympic Peninsula region of the United States, a hundred miles or so east of Seattle, Washington. Alice had only recently acquired Jasper as a guard for her trip across the country. After all, she had foreseen that he would willingly protect her as she went to join her family. What her visions of the future had not warned her of, was that he would develop feelings for her and become clingy… She shuddered slightly as she looked at him, still attempting to look like a broken puppy. But her eyes saw only a tool, one used and discarded. Unfortunately for her, this particular tool was resisting.

"Alice, please, I lo-…"

"Jasper!" Her tone was harsh now, scolding. "Don't embarrass yourself anymore. I'm going home and I don't want my family to see you… You'll scare them."

Alice's golden eyes were cold as she pointedly looked at the scars on Jasper's exposed skin. She gave a nod to herself as she saw in his eyes that he would not follow. A quick check of her future reassured her that she could see him nowhere.

Content now that she was getting her way, she actually gave him a chipper smile. "Thank you for taking me home. Goodbye."

And without another word to the fallen vampire, Alice turned and ran the last miles to her family alone…

Back in the clearing, Jasper continued to stare blankly at the spot where Alice had shattered his heart. It was days later before he could finally break out of his stupor. His eyes, once nearly gold with only slight hints of red remaining, were now black. He went from lying perfectly still on the ground to bursting into motion.

With a scream of pain, he exploded. His brain snapped, reaching a point where he could no longer handle or process anything and his body became violent in the burst of energy. Rocks were crushed to dust, boulders broken or thrown violently without regard for where they may land. Trees were flung about with as much care. Finally, once he had doubled the size of the clearing, he tore off in a random direction as fast as his feet could move.

Jasper did not know how long he had been running when a faint trace of his own scent pulled him to a halt. A feline-ish curiosity led him to look for the mark of his own passing in the unfamiliar surroundings. Eventually his nose led him to a small break in the surrounding forest. A boulder, thrown from the other clearing, was in the center. His head cocked to the side, curious as to the distance the boulder had traveled.

Turning, Jasper looked around and subconsciously noted the direction in which the damage of the boulder's passage went. His vampiric brain automatically, and quite subconsciously, calculated trajectory and time traveled to reach the point and put the answers to force and distance deep in his mind. Taking no conscious awareness of these things, Jasper's gaze once more turned to the boulder.

His eyes narrowed, a rage building up at the physical presence of a reminder to his heartbreak. Striding over to the boulder with a snarl, he took it into his hands and crushed it to dust. As he was about to leave, a fresh scent caught his attention.

Glancing down, a strange sight met his black gaze. Jasper looked confused for a moment, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. Eventually he knelt down and brushed the boulder dust away only to lift his hand up and brush his fingers together… fingers that were now coated in a thick, sticky substance.

Staring absently at the substance, Jasper eventually felt a serene calm settle over him and he turned his head down to survey the damage that had been caused…

Still wearing traces of dust, a broken seedling lay crumbled on the forest floor. Jasper's eyes identified it as a sequoia and, upon looking around; he was confused as to how it had gotten there. He could neither smell nor see any other sequoia trees in that particular forest. It was a novelty, completely unique to the area… And his rage had killed it.

He froze in place. How many more things would he destroy? How many people would he kill without a thought for the consequences? He couldn't do it anymore… He had been shown another way. Now he needed to build his own path… And he would start here.

Jasper carefully pulled the seedling into an upright position and carelessly shrugged out of the expensive shirt he wore. Tearing the shirt that had been a gift to shreds, he used to it, as well as some fallen sticks from the nearby forest, to make braces for the small tree. Once it was standing in place, it's sap no longer seeming to leak out; he stood and surveyed his handiwork.

Giving a nod, Jasper ran away from the seedling. He tracked down and hunted a small pack of wolves before searching out the nearest town. A few hours later found him sitting back in the small clearing. In his hands, he was perusing a book on caring for trees and keeping a watchful eye on the small seedling…

His mind, and heart, needed to heal. What better way than becoming a temporary tree herder?

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

Though the small seedling had not died, Jasper still found himself often returning to the tree. He returned so frequently that he had built a small cabin, hardly more than a shed, in a clearing not far away from the seedling's gap. Inside the cabin was his collection of books. And a small collection of items intended to assist in caring for trees, such as chemicals to kill off insects that are harmful to tree growth.

He was currently lying down in front of the small tree, writing a book on the Civil War. He knew that history was unfortunately written by the winners of war so felt that writing something from the losing side would be helpful. Jasper was also clever enough to know that he would most likely have to publish it was a work of fiction if he wanted it published at all. He still hadn't decided that.

"Should I truly turn it into a work of fiction and include the encounter with Maria, Lucy and Nettie?"

His question was posed to thin air, as no one else was in the gap. He didn't do it often, but Jasper had found that over the last ten or so years that he voiced things aloud in the seedling's gap more often than he did anywhere else.

"Maybe save that for another book…"

Jasper hummed a soft melody to himself and continued writing.

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

"I couldn't believe it! I went into town today to pick up my latest royalty check and do you know that it's 1987 already?"

By now Jasper knew he was consciously directing his thoughts and feelings to the sequoia. It didn't bother him now though it had when he first realized he was talking to a tree. He merely leaned against the sturdy young tree and kept it updated on all of his thoughts and ideas.

"They're wondering if I'm going to write another book in the series. I haven't decided yet."

Jasper was subconsciously projecting his contemplation onto the sequoia as he spoke. "I think I might. As long as they remember I won't do the signing tours or even give them a picture to stick on the back cover."

He rolled his eyes and stood up straight. "I'm gonna go get my notebook and pens. You wait here."

Without a glance back, Jasper took off toward his small cabin.

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

"Can you believe that asshole? You are certainly not firewood!" Jasper ran a loving hand down the trunk of the sequoia as he perched on one of the thicker branches. He was sending a baleful glare down toward a smoking pile of ashes that marred the leaf-strewn ground below. "And he had the nerve to call me insane!"

The air was thick, both with the heavy lingering scent of charred vampire smoke and Jasper's projected anger. Abruptly his thoughts switched pattern and he sat down, settling his back against the familiar bark patterns of the trunk.

Jasper grinned, a grin that was just a bit goofy. "And here I was thinkin' I had lost my soldier touch when those ladies in town last week had the nerve to flash their titties at me." By the end of the sentence his tone was more incredulous than amused. "When the Hell did ladies get so damn bold and… And… _Scarlet_ anyway?"

Frowning in thought, Jasper tilted his head up to look at the highest branches of the tree through his honey blond locks. "What year is it anyway?"

But though his brain knew, he did not acknowledge the information and instead changed the subject. "So I was thinking that maybe I should go ahead and buy a horse and see if I remember how to take care of one. I'm good enough now that I can resist eating one and I have missed riding…"

Trailing off in thought, he was brought back to the present by the wind rustling the branches of the sequoia.

"You're absolutely right, it is a good idea." He hopped off the branch and started running toward his cabin. If he were going to get a horse, he'd need to add a small stable for it.

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

Jasper rode up to the sequoia, dismounting from the paint mustang. "Doesn't he look just like the horse they used for that old Hidalgo movie?" His voice was excited and he let the reins fall to the forest floor as he jumped out of the saddle. "I even named him that. I couldn't resist getting a mustang once Dancing Star died… I don't want another mare for a while. She was too sweet to replace right away like that... Just like her grand dam was."

In one smooth leap Jasper was seated on his favorite branch high in the sequoia. He looked around. "Wow, you're gettin' so tall…" He peered around at the tops of the trees that had once dwarfed his tree. He soon frowned, looking down at the small gap.

"I think I'm gonna have to remove a couple of your neighbors again. You're running out of room down there. I'll be back!"

He dropped to the ground and once more mounted the mustang, riding back into the woods.

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

"Merry Christmas to my favorite lady!" Jasper cheerfully held up a rotting cougar carcass. "Look what I brought for you this year!"

Kneeling at the base of the trunk, Jasper dug a deep hole and dropped the dead cat into the pit. He quickly buried it, knowing that his tree would eventually take nature's course on the offering. He was humming his favorite Christmas melodies as he worked at a slow human pace. Once it was done, he leaned against the thick base of the trunk.

"You're so sleepy this time of year." He commented absent-mindedly. "Beautiful, but sleepy." He was pouting as he tilted his head up to take in the icicles dangling from the branches.

"I did get you another present this year, though!" Reaching into his back pocket, Jasper pulled out a stack of papers and unfolded them. "See?! I bought another section of the land around here. Eventually this whole forest will be the Whitlock Wildlife Refuge."

He couldn't hold in the snicker at the idea of making a refuge for his own prey as he refolded the land deed and stuck it back into his pocket.

After an hour or two of silence, he ran a hand fondly down the trunk. Projecting affection, he turned a blindingly bright smile up toward the now quite large sequoia. "We're ringing in 2070 next week, don't be late!"

And then he was off back to his cabin.

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

Jasper was once more seated on his favorite branch. Leaning back against the trunk, he carefully studied the worn boots that adorned his feet. "I need something." His brow furrowed as he contemplated. He had long since stopped bothering to shield his empathic abilities when in his tree's gap. Thus everything he felt was shared with anything in his range.

Right now he was saturating the area with a sense of longing and a faint pain. "Maybe I should pick up ano…"

Jasper suddenly froze, his entire body stiffening in a cautionary manner as he detected a faint emotion that was foreign. His senses went onto alert as he slowly moved his head, scanning all of his senses for the source of the trace wistfulness. He looked confused, his senses telling him that no one else was present and yet he clearly felt the emotions of someone.

"What the world…"

Further comments were drowned out as the wistfulness altered into something that he could only call adoration. The keen sense of longing he had been projecting suddenly doubled as a sad look came across his features. It had been so long since he had felt something like that…

Dropping to the ground, Jasper started to track down the faint emotions. A few feet into the forest that surrounded the gap and he could no longer feel the alien emotions. Thoroughly confused, he started back into the gap only to once more feel the adoring sensation. It didn't take long for him to completely circle the gap in his search until he could only come to one conclusion.

Incredulous gold eyes stared up at the young giant sequoia. "It's you… Oh my God…"

Directly after his words a tremor of excitement rippled over the adoration and he could hear the branches rustle though all of the other trees were still in the dead air.

If vampires could faint, Jasper certainly would have in that moment…

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

He almost never left the gap now. Ever since the first time he had faintly sensed emotions from the giant sequoia he had become a resident of his favorite branch. He would talk, projecting his emotions onto his tree and wait patiently for the response. The tree's emotions were stronger now; they had been communicating this way for nearly twenty years at this point, after all. He was filled with a sense of joy almost all of the time now. Sometimes he would remember that he was staring at a tree and he would panic, but it never lasted long. He didn't feel alone anymore…

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

"So that's when he realized what he was holding was a lottery ticket!"

Jasper cracked up at his own lame joke. He wasn't sure this time if his tree's amusement was to his words or in response to his own amusement, but the ripple of emotion made his still heart swell.

It wasn't until he had reined in his own boisterous laughter that Jasper realized the branch he was sitting on was shivering in time to the tree's amusement. He froze in place, staring into the distance as he felt the shivering slow as the amusement dwindled and both stopped at the same time.

"Sweetheart…" He had decided years ago that his tree was a lady. And since his lady was so fond of projecting adoration, how could she be anything other than a Sweetheart? "Can you giggle again for me?" He had patiently spent ten or so years explaining the words that went with the emotions and his lady understood his request.

Another ripple of amusement went through the tree and again the branch shivered beneath him. Now that he was focusing on it, Jasper noticed that the entire tree quivered with amusement and he looked with wonder at his Sweetheart.

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

Jasper felt as if he were being embraced. He was snuggled into the warm roots of his Sweetheart, contentedly reading aloud to the giant sequoia from a collection of classic novels. The gap they were in was smack dab in the middle of the rather large Whitlock Wildlife Refuge. From where they were settled, his vampiric vision could just make out the city of Imbrium located in the Sea of Tears on the moon should he happen to look up at the night sky.

The wonders of technology these days had no effect on his life. As far as he was concerned, only his thirst was reason to leave the gap anymore. He had stopped keeping horses not long after Sweetheart had started projecting emotions, so only hunting and the occasional shower were cause for him to leave. Every thirty or so years he would head into town and arrange the passing of the Whitlock fortune on to the next in the family line… Which was just his way of legally updating things so that he could keep things up to date.

But the last time he had gone into town had been a major shock to his system. Apparently the world now knew about vampires and werewolves and shape shifters and faeries and all manner of mythological creatures that had once been hidden. Checking the history records, he had bemusedly reported to his Sweetheart that it was now 2257 and apparently the mythological world could no longer hide thanks to modern technology. Everything he owned was now legitimately his.

Jasper Whitlock was now a legally known vegetarian vampire living on land he owned and would not have to worry about anything as long as he didn't show up with red eyes without having a _license_ that allowed him to lawfully feed from humans… A license!

Sometimes the world outside his Refuge bothered him… But here in the gap, he didn't care what went on in the world because his world was here.

Jasper smiled in his reading as a smaller root coiled it's way around his waist and held him close. The love coming from Sweetheart filled him with contentment as he continued to read aloud.

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

Jasper had just finished showering and pulling on a pair of pants when he suddenly felt pain coming from Sweetheart's gap! His head snapped up so quickly that one would almost think he had broken his own neck in the move. The fear and panic on his face reflected his own and the ones he could feel accompanying the pain. In a flash he was tearing out of the cabin's door and racing toward the gap!

He couldn't remember ever running so fast in his life. Even the race that had first led him to the gap was nothing to the speed he put on now. The first thing he did was circle around the gap, searching for the source of Sweetheart's pain and fear. He could find nothing and his own panic was racing out of control as he ran over and placed his palms against the trunk.

"Sweetheart, what's wrong?!" His fear was peaking as the giant sequoia writhed with pain. "Come on, Sweetheart… You can't do this to me…" He pressed his cheek against the rough bark, melding himself against the tree. "You can't leave me! I can't do this without you, Sweetheart…" The venom welled in his eyes as he curled his fingers, almost digging into the bark, but unwilling to do something to increase the tree's pain. His voice dropped to a pained whisper. "Don't leave me… Please."

Jasper's eyes squeezed shut as he felt the bark beneath his body ripple as the pained sensation increased. To him, it felt like Sweetheart was trying to push him away and he cried out in anguish. He could feel his body being pushed back with each ripple of pain and suddenly he felt himself shoved with enough strength to knock his stone body down. A scream pierced the air as something soft and warm hit him at the same time as the emotions that had torn him out of his cabin vanished. In shock, Jasper's eyes flew open… And so did his mouth as he damn near died at what he saw lying on top of him!

Beautiful!

That was all Jasper's mind could process as he stared, completely dumbfounded, into a pair of deep brown doe eyes. The expression on the pale, heart shaped face was as shocked as his own. Soft brown hair that glinted with green in the shadows fluttered gently around the beautiful face. His eyes refocused, taking in the bigger picture of the small, soft and completely nude female body lying atop of his own barely clothed one. His mouth was still slack-jawed, hanging open with shock… An expression the female mirrored.

With a nearly painful slowness, the female moved a delicate hand up to touch the tips of her fingers to Jasper's cheek. Her eyes and fingers traced over the silvery scars marring his skin and a very familiar sensation of love and adoration swept over Jasper as she moved with some instinct to press her lips against the scars.

Still frozen with shock, Jasper was unable to move as the suddenly appearing woman began to kiss her way across his jaw and to his lips. It wasn't until she started to purr as she pressed her lips against his that he finally broke out of his state. Quickly wrapping his arms around her torso, he sat upright, a move that caused the female to wind up straddling him as she continued to kiss his lips. It was all he could do to put his hands on her shoulders and move her face away from his.

"J…Jasper…" Her voice was earthy and warm with an undertone like that of a woodwind instrument and she purred out the second half of his name in a way that shot lightning straight south from his stomach.

"Sweetheart?!" Jasper damn near choked on his own venom as he stared incredulously at the woman on his lap. There was no other possibility, the giant sequoia may as well have been any other normal tree for all he could feel and the familiar emotions he had tasted for over two hundred and fifty years were coming from the woman in his lap.

Her response was to smile so brightly that he was dazzled before she pounced against him, knocking him down with the strength of a tree before she giggled into the next kiss…

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

Sweetheart was a Hamadryad, they had discovered. Since mythological creatures had gone public there was a plethora of information to be found on the varieties that actually existed. According to the older nymphs they spoke with, new Hamadryads were generally slow to awaken fully and, when they reached sexual maturity, they finally took nymph form outside of their tree.

Sweetheart also had a new name to the public. Sweetheart was her personal name with Jasper. To the rest of the world, she held the name that Jasper had unwittingly given her at the moment of her emergence… Beautiful. Or, as written on her legal identification, her name was now Bella Whitlock.

It took Jasper nearly a hundred years to get Bella to stay clothed for more than an hour. Not that he really minded. After all, he was Bella's chosen mate and apparently the sexual awakening of a nymph took a lifetime to wear off. Needless to say, most nymphs literally screwed their mates to death and quite a few they had met were jealous of Bella's luck in falling in love with an immortal. As for Jasper…

Jasper was deliriously happy.

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

"Let's go to Paris, Jasper! Peter and Charlotte are there and I want to get married again… Charlotte loves being my matron of honor."

"Okay, Sweetheart." There was nothing that made Jasper happier than making his Sweetheart happy. If she wanted to go to the colonies on Jupiter just so she could turn around and demand to come back home he would say the exact same words. 'Okay, Sweetheart.' The amount of power that little nymph held over his vampiric heart was amazing. And, not for the first time in the last eon since she had first fallen out of her tree, he actually thanked Alice for being a bitch and kicking him to the curb…

Not that they could go to Jupiter anyway. Nymphs were bound to the earth and could not leave the planet. They could only travel away from their source for a certain amount of time. The longest he and Bella could stay away from her tree was a week and a half before they had to spend at least the same amount of time back in their Refuge. She never had to eat or drink and rarely needed to rest. When she did rest, her physical body flowed back into the giant sequoia in the gap and they were back to communicating through emotions and slow, stiff motions until she awoke once more. All of her physical needs when awake were taken care of by her tree. And Jasper filled all of her emotional, intellectual and other needs.

Since her veins ran with sap and her body was as strong and sturdy as her giant sequoia, Jasper never felt fear that he would hurt her. She was everything he wanted and, as he nuzzled his face into her sweet hair, holding her in his lap as they sat among the roots of her tree in the gap, he knew that he was truly home.

He held her, feeling nothing but love and tranquility as he watched over her shoulder as she used their compad to arrange their latest wedding.

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

"I didn't like the way that vampire looked at me earlier." Bella pouted, wrapping her arms around Jasper's waist from behind. "It was like she wished I were human so she could kill me."

They had found out from the other Hamadryads that Bella's physical body was immortal as long as her tree was safe. The physical manifestation that was Bella was really just a magical shell that contained the spirit of the giant sequoia. The body could be destroyed repeatedly and the spirit would merely return to the tree and take form again as often as it wished.

That didn't mean Jasper appreciated someone giving his mate threatening looks…

"What vampire?" There was already a growl building in his chest as he started to scan their surroundings as if the vampire in question would pop out and wave at him… He turned in Bella's embrace, wrapping his own arms around her and resting his chin atop her head.

"It was earlier, while I was picking up a gift for Garrett and Kate's most recent wedding." She shivered slightly. "She was about this tall…" Bella gestured to a height roughly six inches shorter than herself. "With spiky black hair and gold eyes. She looked almost like I was trying to steal something even though I had just put something back down on the shelf when I saw her!"

Jasper frowned, trying to remember if he had seen a vampire matching that description earlier in the day. He couldn't recall anything and shrugged. "I'm sorry, Sweetheart. Next time you see her, point her out to me and I'll tear her arms off and beat some sense into her with them, okay?" He gave a lopsided smile to his beautiful mate.

Bella giggled and rubbed her nose lovingly against Jasper's. "Okay. Now let's go, I haven't seen Garrett and Kate since they got back from the Andromeda Galaxy!"

Jasper laughed and returned the Eskimo kiss, unconsciously projecting their affection around the town and getting more than one wistful sigh from the people within range. "Okay, Sweetheart."

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

Bella stepped off of the path from the cabin into the gap. She had been taking a luxurious bath, enjoying the heat of the water, and was making her way back to Jasper. He had been doing something and couldn't join her in the bath and finally her curiosity had drawn her to her tree where she knew he waited for her.

Looking around, a soft gasp slipped from her lips. Her eyes were met with the stunning sight of her mate leaning against her tree wearing absolutely nothing. A beam of sunlight filtered down from through the tree branches and lit her mate like a piece of Heaven on Earth. She bit her lower lip as she looked at him, too lost in his beauty to notice anything else for several minutes. When she could finally notice anything else, she saw a gallon jug of her tree's favorite spring water resting atop her favorite blanket and the musical flicker of tiny pixies giggling through the shadows.

Walking slowly toward her mate, Bella looked at him with all the love in her heart in plain sight. "What's special occasion am I not remembering, my heart?"

Jasper's answering smile glowed brighter than his skin in the sun. "I don't know that you'd have been able to remember, my Sweetheart. But exactly three thousand years ago today I decided that a tiny seedling was worth everything for me to stay here and never look back…"

With a happy sob, Bella launched herself at her mate and wrapped him in her embrace.

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

They were currently enjoying the excitement of Mardi Gras. It had been centuries since they had bothered, but this year was the first year that a legitimate race originating from another planet had been involved in the celebration, thus the party was extremely wild and New Orleans was the place to be. They had lost track of Peter and Charlotte hours ago and didn't seem to mind as Jasper currently had Bella pinned against a wall in the historic French Quarter and was kissing her senseless. It wasn't until they started to head back to the festivities that they noticed anything was wrong. And when they noticed, there was no way they could ignore it…

"Jasper… Something's wrong." Bella stopped, pulling on Jasper's arm to pull him back to her. She looked confused, like the world had just stopped making sense. "Jas…NO!"

Horror filled Jasper as Bella suddenly curled in on herself. A scream pierced the air, lost in the sounds of Mardi Gras around them as sap started to leak from the corners of Bella's mouth.

"Bella! Sweetheart! Oh God…"

Only the muffled, gurgling sound of Bella crying out, "Home," snapped Jasper into action. He scooped up his very heart into his arms and started racing to their car. Placing her into the passenger seat, Jasper dove into the driver's side and threw the thing into gear, taking off into the sky and racing as fast as he could back to their Refuge. He didn't slow until their landing pad was in sight not thirty minutes later and he landed the car. Getting out, Jasper scooped Bella into his arms once more and raced to her tree. What he saw in the gap broke his heart…

The giant sequoia, well over three thousand years old, had been snapped. The tree had taken down all others in its path and was leaking sap all over the ground.

"No…" Jasper's voice was barely there with the horror he felt. "Hang on, Bella… Everything is going to be okay."

Gently laying his mate down, Jasper ran to the fallen giant and used every bit of strength and balance he possessed to manhandle the massive tree back onto the jagged stump. Each time he heard the pieces of the trunk crumbling under the movements of the immense weight of the tree he felt his heart tear into shreds.

Once the tree was upright once more, Jasper raced to the cabin for a chain, returning less than a breath later and wrapping it around the tree to hold the trunk upright like an emergency bandage. How did he fix this?!

Jasper moved over to Bella's still form, lifting her into his arms again. "See, Bella… It's gonna be okay." He looked into her deep chocolate eyes, his soul felt crushed as he watched her eyes dim. "Please, Sweetheart… Please. It worked before… Don't go…"

"Jasper…" Bella reached a hand up slowly, brushing her fingers over the same scars that she had first touched on Jasper's face. "Love you…" With one last exhale, her arm fell limp and the light vanished in her eyes.

Jasper's tortured gaze moved immediately to the tree only to see the chain fail and the giant once more fell.

Screams filled the night.

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

It wasn't until the sun started to rise the next morning that Jasper moved once more. He carefully lay Bella's body on the ground that now seemed cold. He walked over to the tree that he had tended and loved for almost his entire life and touched the wood with reverence. He waited for hours for any sign of life from the tree. Finally, he felt the last of his heart shatter in the silence and, using his bare hands, Jasper set to work slowly tearing the massive trunk into pieces.

The stump was smoothed into an altar upon which he placed the body of the nymph that had stolen his heart. The wood of the trunk was lovingly stacked all around the altar, filling the entire gap. As he was finishing his construction of a pyre, he came across something he should have noticed sooner…

A scent. No. Two scents he should have noticed sooner. Two vampire scents he had never smelled before in his life. And those scents were all over the wood that had been near the break in the tree. In less than a tenth of a second, Jasper's eyes went flat black and he took off on the trail of the scents.

He knew not how long he ran before he could finally hear voices ahead of him. The emotions he tasted from the two ahead was playful and fun loving and, for a moment, Jasper had thought he was mistaken. And then one of them spoke fatal words.

"Dude! Did you see that thing fall? I told you I could get it in one hit… POW!" A booming laugh followed the statement.

Jasper didn't need to hear more. His mind went blank, revenge the only thing on his mind.

"I was right next to you, of course I saw it fall… Almost hom…" The second voice never got to finish the words as Jasper suddenly slammed into him.

Jasper was a monster of fury the likes of which he had never before been as he hit the smaller of the two male vampires. He didn't even register the coppery reddish brown hair as he ripped the male's head off in one twist. The piercing shriek of tearing metal as he decapitated the vampire caused the larger one to freeze and turn to see the enraged Jasper tearing his companion to shreds.

The larger vampire roared so loud the trees shook as he jumped at Jasper. What he didn't expect was to hit a wall of grief that slammed him to the ground. The dark, curly haired vampire screamed in emotional pain just before Jasper's teeth sank into his neck and ripped his head off. The metallic tearing sounds filled the air as Jasper ripped, bit and tore the pieces into the smallest chunks he could manage.

He was just starting to reach for some sticks to start a fire when he heard voices approaching rapidly. The incoming emotions of panic, rage and excitement as well as the multiple sounds of footsteps approaching caused him to pause. He didn't have long to think it over. In history there were only two vampiric families that could have possibly had enough members to make the noise coming in his direction.

Giving a snarl of rage, Jasper threw down the sticks and turned, running as fast as he could back toward the gap. The screams as the torn vampires were discovered insured that he was not going to live. He didn't want to live. Not without _her_ by his side. But he didn't want to leave her in his death. He had to get back to her and end it on his terms.

He could still hear the sounds of pursuit as he reached the gap. In less time than it took to draw breath, Jasper was on the altar next to Bella's body and rapidly rubbing two sticks together above a pile of sap coated branches. The sap caught fire quickly and Jasper started tossing the branches into the wood surrounding the altar. With one last look around to make certain the fire would not be stopped, he knelt down and moved Bella into his arms. He held her close, wrapping his arms around her still form and rocking slowly as he hummed a very old song into her hair.

Within minutes the fire had spread into the pyre that completely surrounded the altar. The flames were moving onto the altar itself as the vampire family that had been chasing him, accompanied by at least a dozen horse-sized wolf shape shifters reached the edge of the gap. By then, it was too late.

They could only stand back and watch, jaws agape as they saw a vampire catch fire as he held a body to himself in a way that could only mean that they had been one soul. More than one set of watching eyes, once bent on revenge, could not refrain from filling with tears that, in half the cases, would never fall. Only one set of tears actually fell that day…

On the altar in the center of the pyre, the venom in Jasper's eyes fell down onto Bella's brow before both were consumed in the flames.

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

With a feeling of horror, Alice Cullen watched a scene she had once envisioned more than three thousand years ago finally take place. She had known when she drove him away that the strength of his love was more than she could bear… But she hadn't realized then that she would actually witness that love in death.

After all, she had driven him away in an attempt to avoid having to see this death with her own eyes…

* * *

-Fin-


End file.
